Netherwood, Former Lodge to Cranwell

Netherwood, Former Lodge to Cranwell

A neo-classical lodge built between 1850 and 1852 by the architects Wilson & Fuller, who also designed the mansion Cranwells. The building is constructed in Bath stone ashlar with a shallow pyramidal slate roof set behind a high parapet and a tall central chimney stack.

The lodge has an almost square single-storey plan with a porch to the front elevation. The north-east facing porch features an open pediment incorporating a round-headed central doorway with a pronounced central keystone, flanked on either side by plain pilasters. On either side of the porch is an eight-pane sash window, with identical windows on the west elevation. Two small rectangular flat-roofed extensions including a garage were added to the rear around 1930; these are not of special interest.

The lodge marks the main entrance drive leading to Cranwells. Immediately to its north stands a pair of mid-19th-century gate piers (listed Grade II), which give access to a drive running along the southern boundary of parkland laid out in the mid-19th century, leading northwards to the former mansion (listed Grade II).

The lodge was built to serve Cranwells, a large mansion designed by Wilson & Fuller in 1850-52 for Jerom Murch (1807-1895), a Unitarian minister and former Mayor of Bath. The mansion and main drive are first depicted on Cotterell's map of Bath of 1852. Murch was a keen plantsman, and shortly after his mansion's completion, a garden with a fountain surrounded by a park with a small lake were laid out, served by entrance lodges to the south-west and north.

Following Murch's death in 1895, the estate was purchased by Saxton Campbell Cory, a wealthy colliery owner, who refurbished the house. In 1909 it was acquired by Alfred Pitman, founder of the Pitman Press; sale particulars from this period describe the entrance lodge as having four rooms with an outbuilding. In 1952 Edward Greenland, a tobacconist and confectioner, bought the property and sold off much of the parkland for development, including the south lodge, which became a private dwelling known as Netherwood. In 1961 the Bath Corporation placed a Compulsory Purchase Order on Cranwells to accommodate Cranwells Art Secondary School, which later became Summerfield School, a special needs school.